Life & death

The Chautauquan Daily The Offi cial Newspaper of Chautauqua Institution | Thursday, July 1, 2010

Opera Young Artists present fi rst Artsongs recital, Page 3

Tense processSchool of Art instructor to lecture on his approach to making art.PAGE 5

Tarts from the heartKeyser begins another season of selling famous treats.PAGE 9

Taking on Bible literalismRecap of Spong’s Tuesday lecture; his series continues at 2 p.m. today.PAGE 11

VOLUME CXXXIV, ISSUE 5CHAUTAUQUA, NEW YORK 50¢

TODAY’S WEATHER

FRIDAY SATURDAY75°58°0%

Sunny

HIGH 70°LOW 53°RAIN: 0%

81°62°0%

by Mallory Long | Staff writer

The North Carolina Dance Theatre will begin its 2010 Season at Chautau-qua Institution with an exploration of

life, death and eternity, keeping with this week’s “Eternal Life: A New Vision” Inter-faith Lecture theme for its annual Dance Salon. The salon takes place at 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater, and will feature members of the North Carolina Dance Theatre and choreography by Mark Diamond, associate artistic director, and Sasha Janes, guest choreographer and re-hearsal director.

by Sara TothStaff writer

For art and literature, a mark of quality comes from words of praise — not from the mouths of critics or read-ers, but from the pens of col-leagues.

A shining example of this quality and praise is on the front cover of Roger Rosen-blatt’s latest work, Making Toast: A Family Story, which features the words of writer E.L. Doctorow: “A painfully beautiful memoir telling how grandparents are made over into parents, how people die out of order, how time goes backward. Written with such restraint as to be both heart-breaking and instructive.”

Rosenblatt will present Making Toast at the Chautau-qua Literary & Scientifi c Cir-cle Roundtable at 3:30 p.m. to-day in the Hall of Philosophy.

Making Toast is the third book penned by Rosenblatt to be named a CLSC selection. Rosenblatt has written more than 10 books, including Beet, Lapham Rising, Rules for Aging and Children of War.

A graduate of Harvard University and the youngest House Master in the school’s history, Rosenblatt has been a teacher, journalist, play-wright and editor, working for such publications as The New Republic. He has also con-tributed to numerous publica-tions and media, most notably Time and PBS’ “NewsHour.”

Despite all the different genres to which Rosenblatt has contributed, he said his favorite medium is books, and that he has no plans to re-visit his article-writing past.

“Now, it’s better, given my situation and our lives now, to only write books,” he said. “I can work on them, then drop them off, then pick it up again. I can have the satisfaction of holding something in my hands. The problem with articles and columns is that they might please people, but generally they are read and forgotten.”

Rosenblatt’s situation and his life “now” is in Bethesda, Md., with his wife, Ginny, and their son-in-law and three young grandchildren. The couple moved from Quogue, Long Island, after the December 2007 death of their daughter, Amy.

by Sara TothStaff writer

So far this week, Roger Rosenblatt has spoken to a journalist, a novelist and an actor — all of them close personal friends. Continuing the week’s morning lecture theme, “Roger Rosenblatt and More Friends,” today Rosenb-latt is talking with one of his former students.

Rosenblatt will converse with writer, editor and teacher Anne Fadiman at 10:45 a.m. in the Amphitheater. Fadiman is the inaugural Francis Writer in Residence at Yale University. The position is the university’s fi rst endowed appointment in nonfi ction writing. Fadiman is the former editor of The American Scholar and author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Colli-sion of Two Cultures.

Fadiman is a graduate of Harvard University’s Rad-cliffe College, where she was one of Rosenblatt’s students.

“Because Anne was my student at Harvard, I’ve known her since she was a child — or a kid, anyway,” Rosenblatt said. “I’ve known her for a very long time, and I’m just absolutely thrilled at the work that she’s done and the success that she’s had.”

by Kelly PetryszynStaff writer

“Close Up Space” is an editing symbol that means to get rid of space and bring two letters to-gether. It is also the title of the play that opens at 8 p.m. today at Bratton Theater as part of Chautauqua Theater Company’s New Play Workshop, relating to the literary theme of this week’s morning lecture series, “Roger Rosenblatt and More Friends.”

Playwright Molly Smith Metzler said she want-ed to write a play about closing up the space be-tween a father and daughter. The father in “Close Up Space,” Paul, is an obsessive book editor who is estranged from his daughter, Harper, until she walks back into his life and he fi nds himself at a loss for words. Paul knows how to perfectly com-municate words on paper, but lacks the ability to verbally communicate with people in real life — primarily his daughter.

“I do like (the salon) just being a few dancers because it is more intimate ... They’re more storytelling pieces.”

— Sasha Janesrehearsal director

The salon, a small and more intimate event, is tra-ditionally the fi rst dance event of the season.

“The salon is very con-ducive to experimentation, and I think the Chautauqua audience is so appreciative of choreographers trying new things,” Janes said. “It’s a great venue to try innova-tive things and ideas.”

Although the salon is an annual event, this year’s performance will be differ-ent from previous salons. It will feature eight dancers instead of the traditional six, and prerecorded mu-sic will take the place of a small group of live musi-cians, a change that ben-efi ted the choreographers because they were able to mix songs and use some of their favorite musical piec-es, Diamond said.

Diamond will present four ballet or contemporary ballet pieces. His pieces “Cycles,” “Eternity,” “The Immortal” and “The Circle” all address different aspects of life and death.

Diamond’s fi rst piece, “Cycles,” features three fe-male soloists, each of whom will dance onstage with a little girl that represents ei-ther the dancer’s young self or her daughter. His second piece, “Eternity,” focuses on what happens to a person after death.

“It’s a look at limbo, or souls in eternity, spirits mov-ing around in an afterlife or people in an after world,” he said. “(They are) either re-viewing what they’ve done in their life, regretting what they’ve done in their life or reveling in being in the es-sence of eternity. It’s also very abstract.”

Diamond’s third piece, “The Immortal,” features one male soloist and ad-dresses the idea of immortal-ity by moving from lifetime to lifetime in a mime-like style, making it less serious than his other pieces. His fi nal piece, “The Circle,” ad-dresses the circle of life and will be danced in a circle.

“It starts from the be-ginning of man and goes

through his follies and tri-umphs, he said. “This piece is serious and comedic at the same time.”

Diamond’s dances will alternate with Janes’ during the salon. Janes has created one ballet that will be per-formed in four parts.

For this year’s salon, Janes decided to choreograph one ballet, titled “Resolutions,” which he has broken into four parts instead of creat-ing four different pieces.

Janes’ ballet features a cast of three female and two

male dancers, all of whom will be featured in one of the fi rst three vignettes, “Reso-lution I,” “II” and “III,” and will come together for the fi nal piece, “Resolution IV.”

The pieces will address issues such as death and dying or ideas of reincarna-tion as a woman struggles to break free from her pattern of abusive relationships. He said the small number of dancers in the show allows more room for creativity.

See DANCE, Page 8

Fadiman

Essayist Fadiman to sit with Rosenblatt

See FADIMAN, Page 4

Life& death

The Offi cial Newspaper of Chautauqua Institution | Thursday, July 1, 2010

NPW playwright ready for her close-up‘Close Up Space’ opens tonight

See CTC, Page 4

More grace than pain

See CLSC, Page 4

“It is a play about love, loss, communication and how we close up the spaces in our own lives,” Met-zler said.

“Close Up Space” grabbed the attention of di-rector Ethan McSweeny right away during the play selection process for the New Play Workshop. He appreciated the deeper themes of the play and felt Metzler’s voice stood out while he was reading the play.

Brown Bag discussion What: Discussion about Season 27 and an inside look at “Close Up Space.” Bring your brown bag lunch.

When: 12:15 p.m. today

Where: Bratton Theater

Dance Salon will experiment with some heavy themes

Rosenblatt presents ‘Making Toast’

Photo by Rachel Kilroy